November 18, 2014-July 5, 2015
Installation Location: Lila Acheson Wallace Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art, Second Floor,
Gallery 918
An installation of several paintings by Hans Hofmann, one of the most influential painters of the 20th century, is now on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Drawn from the Museum’s substantial holdings of the artist’s work,
Hans Hofmann: Selected Paintings commemorates the recent publication of the
Hans Hofmann Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, a comprehensive three-volume compendium.
Known as one of the abstract painters of the New York School, Hofmann (American, 1880-1966) shaped three generations of artists, first in Europe and later in the United States. The list of his illustrious students includes Joan Mitchell, Lee Krasner, Larry Rivers, Allan Kaprow, and Marisol (whose large installation
Self-Portrait Looking at The Last Supper is on view at the Met through April 5, 2015 in Gallery 909).
The Metropolitan Museum owns a substantial collection of work by Hofmann, consisting of 15 paintings and 29 works on paper. The artist’s widow, Renate, gave the Museum six paintings between 1975 and 1992, then gave four more as part of her bequest in 1996. Four of the works in the current installation are from “The Renate Series,” a group of nine paintings Hofmann created in 1965 as a tribute to his wife. Executed at the height of his career, they demonstrate the full force and broad range of Hofmann's distinctive style, a leading example of painterly abstraction.
Hans Hofmann: Selected Paintings is organized by Randall Griffey, Associate Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hans Hofmann Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings is published by Lund Humphries and is available in the Museum’s gift shops (hardcover, $295).
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